Christian Conduct
“There is a way that all believers should live.”
Rom 1:16-17
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
2 Tim 2:1-13
A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity."
Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
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Holiness
Holiness is the standard which Christians are commanded and instructed to live by. Scripture makes this clear; and it’s our standard as believers because the Father is completely holy and Christ is bar that we’re reaching for. The bar’s never moved (Mal 3:6) so we as believers need to strive to be unstained with the worlds views (2 Tim 2:4) and even the leniency on Christian conduct in many Christian circles and the emerging seeker friendly movement (2 Tim 4:3). Submitting to the Word of God with humility should be the focus of the believer; God’s Word is where the standard for righteous behavior is found. And that standard of holy living is there for an extremely important reason—that others might see your life and see Christ in you and because of that and hearing the gospel, come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ (1 Tim 2:1-4).
Lev 11:44
“For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.”
“His holy character has something to say about economics, politics, athletics, romance—everything with which we are involved…We dare not seek to avoid it. There can be no worship, no spiritual growth, no true obedience without it. It defines our goal as Christians…To reach that goal, we must understand what holiness is”(R.C. Sproul –The Holiness of God)
holy is “separate”, “a cut apart”. The dictionaries definition doesn’t do God’s holiness justice because His holiness stands alone, it’s transcendent. In short, He is an infinite cut above everything and everyone else.
“He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost totally foreign to us. To be holy is to be “other”, to be different in a special way.” (Sproul)
1 Peter 1: 13-25
Called to Be Holy
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
"All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever."
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
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Traditions
1 Cor 11:1-2
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.
Jude 1:3
Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (The entire book of Jude would be good to pull things from)
- Don’t throw out all tradition simply because the Christian faith is an ancient faith. (ex: communion, fellowship, procedures for disputes in the body, etc…)
- So, there are good traditions to hold to.
There are also bad and unbiblical traditions:
- Novelty, which says that all tradition is bad and everything has to be new. Ex: The modern seeker friendly movement which seeks to make everybody happy. As a result does things like, changing scripture so that everyone can relate, doing away with good traditions in order to conform to the times. Scripture makes this clear:
2 Timothy 4:1-5
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Jesus himself rebukes the Pharisees for embracing tradition instead of the word of God:
Matt 15:1-9
Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat." He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' But you say, 'If anyone tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God, 6he need not honor his father.' So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
"'This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"
- So to embrace tradition over the Word of God is legalistic. It shows a misunderstanding of grace. God will not love you more because you’re disciplined in your practice of traditions; He already loves you with infinite measure because of the Cross of Christ. You can’t make Him like you more, love you more and you can’t add anything to salvation; your salvation is complete in Jesus Christ. We as imperfect sinners and failures bring nothing to the table but our failure and sin and God does the saving and the sanctifying.
- The Christian life is a heart issue, the externality of traditions is hypocrisy if your heart is not right. How does your heart look? Are you praying and striving to live a holy life when nobody is looking? Do you do things out of a love for God or out of a desire to be disciplined for the sake of tradition?
